I stopped by Liberal leader Stephane Dion’s town hall meeting at the University of Victoria on Friday, September 12th.  The event drew a surprising number of people, and Dion’s procession from his bus to the auditorium managed to generate an impressive surge of applause from the mostly student crowd assembled.  I failed to get into the auditorium itself, and it was difficult to make out what was being said on the speakers set up in the lobby to broadcast what was being said inside.

Despite not being able to listen to Dion, the event did give a hint as to the state of the Liberal Party machine in greater Victoria.  All three Liberal candidates in greater Victoria were present, though the bulk of Liberal supporters appeared to be  with Briony Penn’s campaign, the candidate in Saanich-Gulf Islands.  Her buttons were in ample supply for interested attendees and pinned to many who were present, and she had the most signs.  Surprisingly, the only Liberal incumbent, Keith Martin, seemed to have the least presence at the event.  Apart from a few vertical placards, his campaign had no indications of existence, no paraphernalia to hand out.

What this event suggests is that the strongest Liberal machine in greater Victoria (or at least the most enthusiastic) is in Saanich-Gulf Islands, where it is evidently hoped that Penn’s environmental and centre-left credentials will allow for the anti-Conservative vote to coalesce around her campaign.  Saanich-Gulf Islands in the last two federal elections has had a strong yet fractured anti-Conservative vote which has allowed Gary Lunn to win. 

It should be noted that the Victoria Conservatives were also present at the Dion event.  About a dozen or so members of Jack McClintock’s campaign (the Conservative candidate in Victoria) were handing out literature and waving signs.  They also managed to place several Conservative lawn signs along the path that Dion walked down on his way to the auditorium.  The local Tories (most of whom appeared to be of university age) also attempted to stand behind Dion during his scrum with reporters while holding up their blue signs, obviously in the hope that they would form the background in any television coverage of the scrum.  The effort was abandonned, however, after the Liberals responded by placing their own bigger signs between Dion and the young Tories.  

As a side note, in the bit of travelling around Victoria I’ve done, I’ve seen more Conservative lawn signs than anyone else’s.  The NDP come in second and the Liberals in third, with no sign of the Greens.